'Threw Jacinda under the bus': Gang life member blasts Hipkins over rehab controversy

Mongrel Mob honorary life member Harry Tam has accused Chris Hipkins of throwing Dame Jacinda Ardern “under the bloody bus” after the Labour leader said it was a mistake to fund a gang rehabilitation programme. 

In 2020, when Ardern was Prime Minister and Hipkins was a senior minister, Labour approved $2.75 million in Proceeds of Crime funding to go to Hard 2 Reach, a consultancy run by Tam, so it could deliver the marae-based rehabilitation programme Kahukura. 

Following a recent political uproar over Green and Te Pāti Māori MPs and candidates photographed posing with Mongrel Mob members at a “health and wellbeing election hui”, Hipkins told RNZ’s Morning Report yesterday “that was a mistake”. 

“Supporting meth addiction is absolutely something governments should do, but giving the money to the gangs is wrong,” Hipkins said. 

In an interview with podcast Big Hairy Network last night, Tam said the backlash against the election hui with Mongrel Mob members “reeks of fascism” and called out Hipkins for his position on the issue. 

“We pride ourselves as a democratic country and that we’re strong on human rights internationally, right? However, when it comes to us participating as a citizen in the voting process, we’re considered to be undeserving,” Tam told hosts Pat Brittenden and Mike “Chewie” Bennett. 

“All the attacks from the right is basically saying these people should continually be marginalised because of nothing else, because of their affiliation. And there’s something really, really reeks of fascism there.” 

Tam accused Hipkins of marginalising a community “for the sake of it” and “for political expediency”. 

“It’s so bad that Hipkins threw Jacinda under the bloody bus today [Tuesday]. And I think, how extreme can you go? All I can say is that he cannot be trusted because what he’s doing is political expediency to get votes so he can stay in power. That means if he’s in power, he could change his mind when the wind blows the other way. 

“And of course, we’ve seen a history of that from labour. You know, Closing the Gaps was one of them. Foreshore [and] Seabed [Act] is another one. But why would you trust him? You just can’t. 

“I’m a left-winger myself, but I’d rather have the Opposition in front of me, at least I know what I’m fighting. But friends like Hipkins, I don’t need.” 

Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara meeting with members of the Mongrel Mob during the 2026 election campaign. 

Tam, who has previously worked as a public servant providing policy advice on youth, penal policy and criminal justice issues, said his organisation Hard 2 Reach applied for the Proceeds of Crime funding after “a number of suicides within the mob community in Hawke’s Bay”. 

“There’s always a correlation between suicides and an increase in meth use. And so it took us some time to get the leadership around to understand that we needed to do something about it, and we did. 

“I don’t condone gangs violence, but I understand the genesis of where that violence comes from. I understand how intergenerational trauma has had a huge impact on a group of bloody people that struggle to get by, that gets no help, they get constantly demonised for political expediency so people can make gains and profits out of it, and that’s the sad part.” 

He said it was a “rigorous process” to get the $2.75m funding and there was no “cost-benefit analysis” on the success of the scheme. 

The funding was pulled in 2024, with Police Minister Mark Mitchell describing initial decisions by Labour to support the programme as “perverse”. 

MPs from Te Pāti Māori and the Greens pictured with members of the Mongrel Mob during their “health and wellbeing election hui”. 

A report into the programme’s final intake said a “significant” number appeared to stay clean in follow-up testing three months after it finished. 

Hipkins previously ruled out Te Pāti Māori and the Green Party from holding several major ministerial roles if they came to form the next Government. He labelled the Mongrel Mob election hui a “huge error of judgment”. 

He also committed to no funding being given to gang-led programmes after Green co-leader Marama Davidson said she was open to supporting services like the Mongrel Mob-led meth rehabilitation programme that was funded in 2021. 

Hipkins said such a move would be “like asking the arsonists to put out the fire”.